After being kicked out of her apartment for filming illicit content, Rain (Dare Taylor) moves in with a rich young woman who coerces her into a toxic relationship. Girls on Film follows Rain as she navigates her newfound romance with Blake (Willow Grey) and tries to understand who she really is and what she wants from life.
Again and again I found myself cringing at Girls on Film, struggling to understand the decisions made by Writer-Director Robin Bain. The one that puzzled me the most was the lack of score in many of the conversational pieces of the film. As Rain and Blake speak, there are a number of instances in which there is no score, leaving only awkward silence between lines. Back and forth the two girls speak, and the silence in these moments is deafening in the worst possible ways.
This sort of leads to my next issue with the film, the acting. Again, the two girls speak to one another a lot throughout the course of Girls on Film, however, it never really feels like they are talking to anyone, just reading their lines. While they were on screen together, it often felt like they were in a room by themselves, that they had no one to feed off of or react to, and as they read their lines, emotion never makes its way in, and the dialogue ultimately amounts to nothing. I can’t understand if the point was for these characters to come off as emotionless, fractured, and disconnected from the rest of the world–but regardless of the plan, Girls on Film doesn’t reach viewers emotionally.
With all of that being said, however, there is something incredibly impressive about what Bain creates with Girls on Film. The film is full of sex, and the film honestly runs the risk of just being considered a porn (which I don’t think is entirely wrong). I think it’s essential that Bain find a way to make these scenes more relevant–and the cinematography through these moments in the film is actually quite impressive. Bain is artistic and effective in the way she captures these scenes, obviously strengthening the sexuality present in the moment, but also finding ways to capture a real intimacy that can sometimes be hard to bring to life. Bain is a wonderful cinematographer, and this is the most entertaining aspect of the entire film.
Girls on Film really is just porn with a plot, but the plot isn’t entertaining. From the start of the film it’s made abundantly clear that it would struggle massively. It seems that Girls on Film wants to be a cautionary tale, one in which viewers can understand the danger of filming pornographic content and putting it out there for the world to see, or even one that cautions us against toxic partners–but I never really got that. I couldn’t connect emotionally, and as a result it became incredibly difficult to appreciate these aspects of the film. This cautionary tale ultimately falls flat, and it can’t convey the messages that it so desperately wants and needs to.
Written & Directed by Robin Bain.
Starring Dare Taylor, Willow Grey, Donne Marhefka, Mark Slater, Liz Bash, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
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